Forbidden (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) Read Online Free

forever.
    Snow White mimed closing the wall in the grate to Tom. “Don’t spy on me.”
    “I wasn’t,” he shot back.
    Snow White waited until he had dragged most of the wall back, leaving only a few inches of exposed secret passageway, and turned back to her task. She wasn’t sure what exactly she was looking for, but she’d heard of a mirror the Queen kept, one that Isobel cherished as much as Snow White loved her golden beetle. No mirrors were present in the bedchamber, but there were two doors that possibly led to antechambers.
    Snow White was about to open one when she heard muffled voices outside the main door. Iron staves clomped as the guards stood to attention.
    “Snow White!” Tom’s strangled whisper came from the grate.
    A key clicked in the lock. Too late to do anything but wrench an antechamber door open and bolt in. Her heart pounding loudly, Snow White found herself in a cluttered room lit by moonlight wafting from the window. The walls were sheathed in tapestries, now grey in the semi-darkness. A wall mirror the height of a man occupied a corner. Snow White’s pulse quickened.
    Laughter sounded in the bedchamber. Snow White heard Wolfsbane’s voice above the slamming of the main chamber door.
    “Hey,” he said, “you’re still an incredibly beautiful woman. I was just horsing around with her to get a rise out of you. Can't you take a joke?”
    The Queen’s clipped reply: “You have the manners of a boor.”
    “Oh, come on, Isobel. What do I have to do to make it up to you? I can – ”
    Silence, followed by a sigh, then a deep moan. Snow White hoped they would be too preoccupied with each other to notice the uneven wall behind the grate. But oh, what if they decided to light a fire?
    More moans, and the sound of heavy cloth collapsing onto the floor. Snow White took this opportunity to slide into a half-open closet crammed with bulky woolen garments. A fur collar dug into her nose. It was all she could do not to sneeze.
    This was going to be a long, long night, she thought as she listened, unabashed, to the sounds of lovemaking. It didn’t occur to her to be frightened. What can my stepmother do to me after all? went her reasoning. Spank me? Marry me off? They have no reason to see this as anything but a harmless, childish prank.
    But what if Tom Cherry got caught? Snow White pictured his eyes rounding at the frenzied creaking of bed boards. She had no qualms that he would wait for her; his sense of duty far outweighed his peasant terror. She also had no qualms that he was a virgin. Why, she thought as warmth suffused her cheeks, he’s quite a youngling. If they catch him, I will have to protect him, because he sure as marbles can’t protect himself.
    When the night climaxed and her flexed knees began to resemble a pincushion, the voices – smoky, dulcet, satiated – started again.
    “Where are you going, woman?” Wolfsbane’s drawl. “Don’t leave me and mine standing.”
    Soft footsteps coming closer. Snow White cowered in the copious wool. This is what being in a sheep pen must feel like, she thought.
    The Queen entered with a candle. Through the sliver of open closet door, Snow White could see that her stepmother wore only a silken sheet. In the sudden light, the tapestries glowed with richly embroidered scenes of the Enchanted Forest. Frightened deer fled from two-headed beasts amid woven trees of gold, copper and red. In the center, a handsome horned youth with crimson wings smiled coyly at the viewer.
    The Queen kicked the antechamber door shut. The unladylike gesture – both decisive and firm – reminded Snow White of why she admired Isobel in the first place.
    Isobel turned to the mirror, which Snow White saw had an ebony frame. Instead of the Queen’s reflection, the mirror’s surface was a grey cloud.
    “Mirror,” Isobel said, fingering the glass, “awake.”
    The cloud dissolved. Snow White wasn't the type of girl given to gasping, but she had to clamp her mouth